As you expect, the short form is different from polite form, not because it’s shorter, but it’s mostly used in casual speak. In short form, です becomes だ ¹, questions end with a question mark opposed to adding か and verbs in the present tense keeps it’s dictionary forms. In the list below, it will show how verbs and adjectives in the short form look like:

る- verbs

始(はじ)める- to begin

• Present – 始める
• Present Negative – 始めない
• Past – 始めた
• Past Negative –始めなかった

う verbs

歌(うた)う- to sing

• Present –歌う
• Present Negative – 歌わない
• Past – 歌った
• Past Negative –歌わなかった

なadj

親切(しんせつ)な – kind

• Present –親切だ
• Present Negative –親切じゃない
• Past – 親切だった
• Past Negative –親切じゃなかった

い adj

痛(いた)い – painful

• Present –痛い
• Present Negative – 痛くない
• Past – 痛かった
• Past Negative –痛くなかった

The congregations for the short forms were easy since it’s just adding ない to る verbs and for うverbs, cutting off the うat the end and adding あない ². The past tense conjugates like the て form, but you add た instead.

Aside from casual speak, short forms has many uses as shown in few of the examples below:

Refraining someone from doing something:

ここで食(た)べ物(もの)を食(た)べないでください。

Please don’t eat food here.

Quotation:

（私は）美希(みき)はハーニーが好(す)きだと思います。

I think Miki likes Honey.

私の妹(いもうと)は、あしたケーキーが要(い)ると言(い)っていました。

My litter sister said that she needs a cake tomorrow.

Because (から、ので – casual)

雨(あめ)が降(ふ)るから、今日(きょう)公園(こうえん)に行(い)きません。

I won’t go to the park today, because it’s raining.

Aside from the sentences above, there are other uses for the short form I have learned, but won’t explain because there are other sources that explains it better. I just want to show everyone who is currently learning the language that casual forms are just as important as the polite forms. Knowing their existence and learning them will make life easier if you decide to converse with other people, experience Japanese media or study abroad.

Some Notes

 ¶

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Post tags: analysis, Japanese, personal experiences

In Junichi's imagination, Tsukasa feels sadistic today.

It’s Nanasaki Ai’s time in the spotlight and as you expect, there is a lot of girls in swimsuits.

Miya in a Swimsuit... win!

From the last season, her arc left me with a somewhat disappointing impression since it lacked excitement and the bowl of ramen thing was pretty dumb. Hopefully, her after story will improve where it got left off, just like Rihoko in the last episode.  After watching the first episode, I felt better not only for the heartwarming moments between Ai and Junichi, but Miya joining the swim team. This only makes it a bigger treat as he gets into more trouble for peeking in at the girls while they use the pool.

Ai feels brave and caring today for letting him lie his head on her stomach.

On the other hand, Junichi is apparently preparing for the entrance exams and had to attend cram school to get a good grade. Although the entrance exams are different in America compared to Japan, the SATs and a lesser extent, the ACTs were a pain in the butt to take and prepare for.  I remember going to these test tutors during my senior year of high school, but it didn’t make much of an impact. Eventually, I got my foot into a good college and working at my goal. Even so, I can sympathize with him since he had little rest from all that non-stop studying. It was nice for Ai to calm him down and let him rest on her belly while singing a lullaby. Her soft singing sounded sweet.

She feels bad that Cram School took Junichi away, thus ruining her planned present giving.

In the end, Junichi did badly on the practice exam for one mistake we might have done while filling out the Scantrons. It happened to me several times during high school and college, although I fix it before handing it in. Apparently, he messed up all his answers by ONE ROW, thus getting the rest of the answers wrong even though they were correct if it didn’t happen. The funny thing is that Ai apparently accepts it even though she regretted what she said after he got taken away a day earlier when she intends on giving a gift to him. Just hang on Ai! He will eventually come back and conquer the exams so he won’t face any repercussions! ¶

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Post tags: AIC, moe, romance

"Don't call me Kokoro-chan~"

If you thought the second season of Milky Holmes can’t possibly get any crazier, wait until you see their dreams!

Dreams can't possibly become ilke this...

Although this episode is not on the same level of ridiculousness like the last one, that is an understatement because of Cordelia. She is always obsessed with flowers until a foot lands on her face during the night. In the morning, Nero and her gets into a fight, thus leading us to the wackiest dreams anyone can have, which includes:

• Cordelia facing off a Lion directed by Nero
• Sheryl eating fish paste given by Henriette and Kokoro
• Hercule doing some more poses…

Their dreams only gets crazier when they are faced with a bad situation and they subconsciously activated their toys to fend it off. From there, you get Nero transforming into a pillow-throwing robot, Cordelia using Sheryl as a shield, Sheryl repelling everyone off the bed and Hercule lifting the bed. The results were rather hilarious as Hercule takes over the bed and left the others on the floor without knowing it. To add the cherry on top, yuri between Cordelia and Nero got added to the mix even though they were in a fight between each other on the bed. Despite the wackiness, this is probably one of the craziest dreams I seen in any anime. The cutest moment out of all the  girls’ dream is Kokoro hitting Sheryl and continuously saying, “Don’t call me Kokoro-chan,” which is one of the cutest ways to say her famous catchphrase. I dare anyone to watch that one scene on loop for 15 minutes. I bet most of you will go insane after 5 minutes.

I really suck at Jenga and I know it!

Aside from their dreams, there were other moments that also brought some laughter. This includes Sheryl failing at Jenga and Cordelia cosplaying as Aresené, which looked good on her. With that, it seems that Milky Holmes has finally got their act together after a four episode long soul searching and now ready to do some detective work. This only makes me wonder how ridiculous the upcoming mystery might become in the next episode. Only time can tell… ¶

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Post tags: comedy, JC Staff, moe

Marika sure surprised everyone by her secret of becoming a captain of a pirate ship...

With the sails fixed, are the girls finally out of the woods yet? Hell no as they found a hostile ghost ship that might attack them out of the blue.

From the last episode, Marika had accepted the fate that she is putting everyone on board in danger by going on this practice voyage. This unfortunately comes true as she finds a ghost ship that might potentially launch a cyber attack on the ship. Needless to say, her denial of becoming a pirate captain still surprises me from how she reacts.  No matter what she says, it doesn’t really match up to her actions of staying up all night to plan the attack and willingly jump into a head on cyber attack with the enemy with the possibility of having their systems compromised. I speculate that she is trying to outdo Madoka with her denial when inside, she really wants to become a pirate from her detailed attack strategy. You can’t fool us here! Just admit that you will become captain already because everyone knows about the whole thing!

Aside from that, Episode 4 was mostly a setup of what will happen in the next episode. Although Chiaki felt somewhat down from not having her parfait, I hope Marika’s plan will go through smoothly. Otherwise, we are in for a wild ride.

Oh yes, not to mention… Misa looks lovely in this episode like she always do. ¶

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Post tags: pirates, science fiction, strategic planning

Also, I decided to watch Mouretsu Pirates since I got bored of not having enough stuff to watch (Image Source).

Ranked Episodes

1. Amagami SS+ Plus – Episode 4

I was really happy with Amagami SS finally giving Rihoko the good ending after she got friend zoned in the first season. Not only this made me so delighted, but she also got a kiss. I’m sure many Rihoko fans are satisfied with the ending. It kind of shows that having a girl say something first eventually lead to results.

2. Mouretsu Pirates – Episode 4

Not much happened in this episode since it’s mostly a setup for the cyber warfare in the next episode against a ghost ship. Still, Marika’s denial of becoming a captain of a pirate ship is apparent and she can’t really hide it anymore.

3. Tantei Opera Milky Holmes S2 – Episode 4 (Pending)

Backlogged Episodes

Mouretsu Pirates Episode 1, 2 & 3

So far, I love the setup and the characters, especially Marika and Chiaki as they make a fine partner. Despite the slow development, I still enjoy it.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes Second Season Episode 3

Mud Boats, Sea Cucumbers, a musical number, Cordelia freaking out and Twenty’s Nipples… That is all. ¶

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Post tags: anime rankings, opinion

Time to set sail... OH CRAP...

I hope you like sea cucumbers because there are lots of them in this episode.

Needless to say, the whole premise of this episode was extremely ridiculous. It’s apparent that the girls need to save the school from getting shut down, but taking occupied land that houses a federal prison (think Alcatraz Island) isn’t the answer. This made me wonder, why the hell anyone would make a boat with mud¹? Not only it wouldn’t float, it will fall apart in the matter of time. Even so, someone should really test this myth out to see if it actually works in real life. I dare you to!

Hey look, I cooked a huge octopus!

On the other hand, the girls find themselves locked up in a prison and having to pick up sea cucumbers on the beach for prison work. During the work, it’s funny to see Cordelia get all freaked out about touching these ugly creatures, thus refusing to do the job. Then again, it gets worse since she gets locked up in a dark room that has these creatures with Twenty going crazy with his extendable nipples. Oh boy, things certainly don’t look good for her. Thankfully she got out with her inner powers. As for the others, Nero manages to press the button to turn off the pancaking machine, Hercule successfully escaping from a shark and Sheryl, cooking the big octopus. Even so, the execution traps looked really lame since anyone with enough power or common sense can easily defeat it.

G4, saving the city from Milky Holmes's stupidity...

In the end, Milky Holmes pulls the flower of “hope” from the ground, thus demolished the whole prison and letting the prisoners free. It’s very ironic since those prisoners tried to burn down the city shortly after. Therefore, the G4 had to arrest them again and send them to jail. It’s quite obvious why they got locked up In the first place since it was a federal prison. Even so, this incident only undermines the credibility of detectives even more. I guess the girls need to devise a better plan that ensures success, even though the chances for failure are very high. But hey, they will eventually hit it.

Some Notes

 ¶

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Post tags: comedy, jailbreak, JC Staff, moe, omg sea cucumbers

She is back for more parfait...

As the final preparations got completed for their first voyage, Marika gets her hopes up on what lies ahead for everyone…

You can't lie yourself out of this one...

From the last episode, Marika just jumped into cyber warfare with the other ship without having enough skills. Thankfully, it didn’t matter too much as Chiaki just pumped up the power for the ship to automatically attack them for victory despite overloading the power. Still, what kind of bothers me is that Marika denies it when questioned by Chiaki about becoming an official pirate. Their conversation leaves a lot to think about… What if she chickens out and decides not to become one until the very last episode? If that happens, you end up with another Madoka with everything in the opening becoming a big lie. Even so, I doubt she would run away from it considering her interest in the whole thing and having strong support from her peers.

Space suits of the future certainly looks more attractive than what we have now...

Aside from that, the girls’ practice ship has started its voyage in space. Sadly, it’s not without any trouble because of Murphy’s Law. Therefore, the freshman girls get to wear their space suits and walk on the ship to fix it. Needless to say, the animators thought it was a good idea to confirm the space suits to the girls’ body, thus providing more passive fanservice. Even so, not much happens in the space walk except for untangling the sails. I appreciated the details they put in everything even though it bored some people. This kind of shows the somewhat realistic approach they are trying to take. Things will eventually get more exciting once all the important the details gets laid out.  As they all say, the patient ones will get rewarded.

Forgot to mention, it seems that Chiaki got addicted to parfaits… It makes me wonder if she will end up like Kyoko and starts asking for one during a mission. ¶

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Post tags: gotta have my parfait, pirates, science fiction

Got to eat my parfait while I run away from the kidnappers...

Apparently, all the military and police is after Marika over the possibility of her becoming a captain of a pirate ship. Along with that, the Space Yacht Club prepares for a mission.

Needless to say, it was odd how other people started spying on Marika so suddenly and even planned to kidnap her. Since she only heard about the captain thing a day ago, they can’t possibly find out quickly, unless they were spying. Aside from that, what’s interesting about her mother is that she was born in space, which is a reason why she was a space pirate. Her mother apparently takes her to a deserted plot of land and shows how she fired the big laser guns, which looked amazing. She also teaches her daughter how to fire one, but a smaller one and she managed to make a hole in an old tank. When Marika is ready to decide, hopefully she will continue lending her support.

NOOOOO! MY JENGA TOWER!

The second interesting thing that happened in this episode is Kane McDougal becoming the advisor for the Space Yacht Club. It seems eerily suspicious because of his association with the whole space pirate thing. Perhaps he took that position so he can easily recruit girls for Marika. Even so, he received a tour of the practice ship while everyone else prepared for the practice mission in space.

I wonder why she always looked so annoyed.

Aside from that, the second episode along with the next few episodes will feel like a tutorial of some sort. By the end of this practice, Marika might make up her mind about the captain thing. Still, there was something about her character that fascinated me and this was her determination. When Chiaki found someone hacking the ship’s system, Marika wanted to attack the enemy using cyber warfare even though she lacks the skills. It seems very illogical since there is a big chance for failure, but hey… it’s her decision! Let her face the consequences if it completely fails and damages the practice ship’s computer system. ¶

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Post tags: pirates, science fiction

Admit it Junichi, you loved this...

I bet that everyone have waited for this one episode to see if Rihoko is going to get “Friendzoned” again or not. Well, we will share the good news after the scheduled break…

It happened... they kissed!

Hell yes!!! It actually happened! They got together!

Thankfully, Rihoko didn’t receive the “forever alone” treatment for the second time. Junichi finally confessed his feelings after overhearing her confession for Junichi when she encountered Makabe. I supposed that he was so oblivious towards her for a long time despite being childhood friends has caused him not to recognize her love earlier.  Perhaps, he only needed a small of push like finding out her bust size, cooking and hearing her confessed to get motivated.  This actually worked in the end even though I had a bad feeling in back of my mind that she might not get a good ending with her doing all the kitchen work. Not only that, the lack of them actively kissing was a little disappointing. I guess we can’t get everything all the time, but at least they progressed on with their relationship.

They also love playing with fireworks at such a young age!

Aside from their fated admission of love, there were some really funny moments. Miya apparently went overboard with the shaved ice after all the recently brought ice cream melted. During the night, she actually sleepwalked into Junichi’s room and tried to go bathroom there. He gave such a hilarious reaction while preventing her from taking her pants off in his room. Also, during Rihoko’s and Junichi’s childhood, they loved playing with fireworks. They still do now, except that Rihoko loves the sparkling kind, which apparently brought them to the popular position after she got a bit clumsy and dropped it on him. Otherwise, it was a great episode as she got her deserved ending.

With two arcs down, this leaves Ai next in the spotlight. This only means one thing…  There is more swimsuit action. ¶

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Post tags: AIC, hell yes, moe, romance, take that friend zone!

Arrrgh! Time for some piracy!

I have to admit that I have been experiencing some boredom since I’m watching hardly anything. Usually, I watch a minimum of three shows per season. With Milky Holmes S2 release taking longer than expected, I decided to check out one of the most talked about shows in the past few weeks. That show is Mouretsu Pirates (or Bodacious Space Pirates).

Yes, there are girls in maid outfits too...

Needless to say, I never expected that the combination of piracy (not the file sharing kind) and space to become an interesting concept. You can basically sum this up as virtual pirate wars IN SPACE with a lot of GIRLS. To make things better, the whole female girls wear mostly school uniforms, maid outfits, you name it with fanservice included! Because story takes place in the future, everything looks futuristic with the latest technology such as hologram computers! It certainly beats the smartphones, tablets and laptop computers we have now.

Priceless reaction...

Aside from that, the first episode served as an introduction to the main character and the premise of the show. Marika is a normal girl who happens to inherit a ship that needs a captain. After finding that out from the two people involved with it, her life literally turns upside down as everyone heard the news. Eventually, she agrees to do it after Chiaki, a recent transfer student helps her escape from the men who are after her. From that, I have to say that Marika is a cute and fairly likeable character that isn’t too stuck up. Also, her mom is pretty amazing, especially in the intro shot. The other characters aren’t bad either, especially Chiaki as she also has cute appearance even though she initially acted cold. Still, I loved her reaction when she took a bite into her parfait.

As a whole, the first episode was a rather enjoyable experience and I liked the animation. Hopefully everything builds up with Marika gaining more experience as being captain. Either way, I can’t wait to see what is in store for her and the rest of the crew. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: first impressions, pirates, science fiction

By now, this topic got hammered to death in the blogosphere by now, but looking back at my DVD collection back in 2009, it has significantly grown into a sizable stack. Therefore, I feel the need to share my brief thoughts about the current situation with the anime industry in the United States and of course, taking a look at my collection after these years. (Image Source)

Brief Thoughts about the Anime Industry Today

Ever since the boon in the first half of the 2000s where the industry was at it’s strongest. Since then, the economy took a toll along with the emergence of legal streaming sites like Crunchyroll, things starts to look grim. To make things disturbing, some licensing companies went belly up in the past few years such as Genon. Therefore, I couldn’t obtain a legal copy of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (second season) since it was out of print and possibly never get licensed ever again. This infuriates me because physical media have begun to fade away for more restrictive forms such as DRM laden episodes from iTunes and only being able to stream some series that might never see an official release. It’s a sad reality for someone that wants to own shows that I really enjoyed or have a very strong interest of watching in my collection.

To make things interesting, the situation is opposite for Japan not for obvious reasons, but the difference of how Anime releases gets treated. Over there, these releases are collectable items, thus higher quality and higher priced. People still bought these releases regardless, more so with the Otakus. Also, some companies are even bypassing the middleman by adding English subs to their Bluray releases. Although this is a very profitable solution, I currently cannot afford it since I’m still a student and my Japanese skills aren’t up there yet. If these two factors weren’t a problem, I wouldn’t mind. For that, this only leaves me with the choice of buying related merchandise such as DVDs, video games and such to support them, which is very profitable in Japan. I did this just recently when I imported three Idolmaster CDs from CDJapan since I enjoyed the music and loved the anime (and I plan on completing the CD collection, if I still have enough money). Still, people have to realize that there are other ways to support a series, even if it never gets an American release.

In short, continue supporting what you love within your means.

Further Reading: Yumeka goes further in depth about the current state and future of the Anime Industry in the United States (also has other readings as well)

Collection

During my first year of anime blogging, the only DVDs I had in my collection was Kanon and Air. With my birthday and Christmas on that year and summer additions, it eventually grew to the stack I have today.

In my collection, I have the following (with some comments):

• Air Complete Collection, Kanon Complete Collection – I got this before Funimation released a cheaper version. Needless to say, the packing looked good, although not the best compared to others.
• Kannagi Vol 1 and 2
• Sola – Many thought that this would never get released because of the constant delays. Thankfully, it released so I got a chance to watch some of it.
• Hayate no Gotoku Vol 1,2,3 – This was my first entry into Kugimiya Rie Tsundere anime and I enjoyed it despite the lack of animation quality in the first season.  I don’t plan on completing the first season as it has a lot of fillers and that the second season is a big improvement. Still, I need to finish the remaining episodes before I can do that.
• Clannad/Clannad After Story – When I got my copy, I have to admit that Sentai Filmworks has the most pain in the butt packing ever. They apparently put all their disks in a spindle, which makes it really difficult to take out without trying to break the disc. I managed to get them out without breaking it and ripped them to my hard drive so I never had to take them out again. Aside from that, the English dub was decent, although Kyou’s voice was a bit too rough for my liking in the first season.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (First Season)
• Tears to Tiara – Same horrible Sentai Filmworks packing and the English Dub was pretty bad compared to others. Everyone in the dub sounds like they were Scottish or something.
• Fate/stay night – I became interested in this shortly after hearing the news about the Fate/zero adaptation back in 2010.  Although I enjoyed the first four episodes of this show, I still think the prequel had better story telling and animation.
• Aria the Animation – So far, I enjoy this show and I really need to finish more of it. It also came with a booklet about the show with some sketches/artwork.
• True tears – I intended on getting this for a while, but it apparently got into backorder hell. Eventually I got it and I’m half way done with it.
• The iDOLM@STER Animation Master 5 & 6 (7 still haven’t released yet, but in preorder)

[Show as slideshow]

This wraps up on what I have in my collection now and hopefully it will grow more if I can afford it. Until then, feel free to share your thoughts about what I said about the state of the industry and such. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | 9 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: anime industry, collection, fandom, opinion

Knowing that Milky Holmes Second Season Episode 3 won’t get released until after I published this digest, I may as well write it now.

If you heard the big news about the Internet last week, SOPA has been officially killed off for good with PIPA getting delayed indefinitely. Congress has finally listened after the unprecedented SOPA blackouts/protests by Wikipedia, Google, Reddit and the Aniblogosphere.  Although the battle isn’t over yet, these achievements are great and we should continue putting the pressure on everyone so the Internet stays open.

Also during the weekend, I worked on tweaking the theme even more and made a new header on my test site (featuring Miki Hoshii). I decided not to change the color scheme since I couldn’t come up with a better one and I felt that there is no reason to fix what’s not broken. The good news is that the header will celebrate my three years of Anime Blogging, which started back in February 17, 2009. I plan to have this up by the first day of that month. Despite these developments, you should have noticed the apparent tweaks I made to the theme such as the inclusion of number of comments/trackback in the headers. (Image Source)

Ranked Episodes

1. Amagami SS+ Plus – Episode 3

Finally, Rihoko gets the spotlight and it only looks promising because she is the most innocent girl out of the series. I found Junichi’s interest on her chest and measuring it quite amusing.  To make it funnier, her handling of the eel made me laugh a lot.  I seriously hope she gets a good ending next episode or I will rage really hard that it can become nuclear.

2. Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – Episode 3

(Since this isn’t out yet, I have nothing to add as of now)

Already Ranked Episodes that I didn’t write a Commentary On

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – Episode 2

Ranked #2

Although not on the same level as the first season yet, it couldn’t get any more insane than this: Milky Holmes eating their pet chicken, a man who looks like the Monopoly Mascot searching for his wife that wears a mask, Nero controlling the Diplomat’s pickup truck with her toys, huge whale getting beached on shore and a lot of sushi. You can get the idea of what happened just from this description. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: anime rankings, opinion

Sadly, Rihoko hasn't stop worrying about her fears of becoming overweight.

After Rihoko got screwed badly from the first season, I hope she gets her wish to get a happy ending because let’s face it, it’s sad to see such an innocent girl like her get “Friendzoned” forever.

Obviously, he likes his childhood friend's bust size... but won't admit it.

Continuing from her arc, it seemed that Rihoko still worries about her weight even though she looks perfectly fine. What annoyed me is Junichi teasing her about being fat.  Haven’t he learned that telling a girl that she’s fat is rude? Even so, their childhood flashback on measuring themselves was quite hilarious. Believe it or not, Rihoko has beaten Junichi both in height and bust size back then. Not only that, he seemed to enjoy measuring her chest. Even now, she still looks great despite being self-conscious about her weight. From that, I don’t think she should worry about it since it’s in the right areas rather than the undesirable areas such as the belly. Clearly, Junichi loves her assets despite his teasing about her weight on certain occasions.

Rihoko can't handle eels... that is a fact!

To make things better, she changes into a rather cute dress and meets two of her older friends that graduated and attending the same college. It’s kind of funny how they didn’t change from the last time we saw them and still wonder about Rihoko’s progress with Junichi. What made me laugh is Rihoko’s handling of the live eel that Manaka and Ruriko gave. It’s mostly because she can’t handle it, thus it slipped back into the bucket. It was funny, but looked so innocent.

Overall, things are only looking up for Rihoko. I hope Junichi will recognize her crush by confessing to her since she such a sweet and innocent girl who deserves better. Especially now since another boy wants to take her away. Aside from that, Junichi getting heat fatigue from eating only watermelon seemed kind of silly, even though I don’t recommend having that diet. Maybe he should cut back on reading questionable magazines all night long so he can get well.

But yes, I may as well play “Relations” on loop considering the NTR thing with Makabe… Then again, he will hear the blunt of “The person I like is Junichi” from her next time and probably things might become violent to the point where Junichi must save her from this molester. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: AIC, I hope she doesn't get friend zoned the second time, moe, romance

During the fall of 2010, Ika Musume had become a wild success in Japan and overseas. It was so popular that it got another season, which contains more of same squid girl antics. Since it’s over, how does it compare with the prequel? That answer lies below. (Image Source)

If you have already watched the first season, the second season is more of the same, but with different situations. This range from speaking in English, Soap Opera love triangles, invasion clubs, shrimp cold turkey and Three Stooges creating winter weather during the summer. With sketches like these, they were really entertaining. However, there were some instances where the jokes got really bland and unfunny, which wasn’t too apparent in the first season. I felt that this was bound to happen since they only have so many jokes they can use before it gets repetitive or predictable. Despite this, the sequel to the original Mini Ika sketch brought more heartwarming moments and it’s perhaps the most memorable moment out of the show.

On the other hand, the characters were just as enjoyable since they are the same. The only real exception was Kiyomi’s friends, which she introduces to Ika in Episode 1. I have to admit that The Three Stooges contributed to some of the funniest moments in this season. Even so, Ika remains the center of attention with the other characters merely supporting her role. Without her, the show would never stay the same.

In the end, the second season of Ika Musume is just enjoyable like the first. While the jokes became a mixed bag and Ika unable to invade mankind, it’s still entertained me. Not only that, I enjoyed the opening as it sounded better even though it doesn’t quite fit the show’s theme. With the show being over for the second time, I wonder if they will continue and make another sequel. Time can only tell…

Overall Rating: 8.6/10, B, Very Good ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: comedy, Diomedea, final impressions, moe, slice of life

As most people knew already, today was the SOPA strike and several anime bloggers like myself have joined in by either blacking out their site or spreading awareness by writing a post about it. If you haven’t known already by now, SOPA and PIPA are two extremely dangerous pieces of legislation that will severely harm freedom of speech, innovation, security and the openness of the Internet. Not only that, it will have profound effects on the Anime Blogosphere as we rely heavily on derivative works to share our thoughts about Anime, which protected under fair use. Most bloggers who didn’t participate and Anime Fans have to realize that this law will not affect everyone in the United States, but everyone if they were to get passed. Therefore, I have been proactively reminding others to keep a close eye on this and take action, even if you are in a different country.

Aside from that, I want to share an exhaustive list that participated or mentioned the bill’s existence (perhaps as an excuse to get out of a post):

• Anime Yume
• Baka Laureate
• Beta-Waffle
• Chikorita157’s Anime Blog (this blog)
• Desu ex Machina
• Ephemeral Dreams
• Ganbatte
• G-Empire
• Just as planned
• Kimaguresan’s road to nowhere
• My Sword is Unbelievably Dull
• Organization Anti-Social Geniuses
• METANORN
• NewAnimeThursday
• Shinde Iie Anime Blog
• Subdued Fangirling
• and others I probably have forgotten…

With that, the blackout was a success as it caught everyone’s attention even though some very ignorant SOPA/PIPA supporters like Chris Dodd still paints this as a “dangerous” gimmick and usual mainstream media supporters like CNN still against the opposition. On the other hand, the large-scale protest had convinced three co-sponsors to drop their support for the SOPA bill along with thirteen senators dropping support for PIPA, which is good news. Still, the fight isn’t over yet, so we still need to keep the pressure on Congress and supporters for both bills. Continue to spread the word to everyone in the fandom, not just the blogosphere and contact congress! We need to effectively kill both bills so we can keep continuing what we enjoy most, blogging about Anime.

Update: Just today, the creator of the SOPA bill killed it off for good. Not only that, PIPA got delayed indefinitely. This is good news for everyone in the internet, not just our fellow Anime Bloggers. Even with this huge victory, we must stay vigilant so future bills that are similar to these won’t pass by us without our knowledge like the “Indefinite Detention” clause in the NDAA. Needless to say, I hope congress will get behind the OPEN Act that will attack the source rather than the free, open and innovative internet.

Anyway, let’s thank the tech companies, our fellow Anime Bloggers and everyone else who spread the word about this disastrous bill and saved us from censorship… ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | 10 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: AniBlogosphere, censorship, fandom, politics, reflection, United States, update

Think about the money I can get from this painting... We'll become rich!

Endless supply of Sushi is everyone’s dream, but there is a catch. They have to earn it through some ridiculous chase!

Needless to say, I’m still surprised that the girls of Milky Holmes instantly forgot about being detectives yet again. Instead of doing their studies, they simply went back to work for food. This doesn’t surprise me because it’s human nature and we need nourishment to survive. Even so, I kind of felt sympathetic towards Hercule as she tries to remind the girls about something important, but can’t remember it until the end.

Everyone got what they wished for, except for a select few...

On the other hand, what makes this episode hilarious is the sudden appearance of a wealthy man who has a very uncanny resemblance to the mascot of Monopoly.  To make it even more hilarious, he was looking for his wife who only wears a mask similar to the one in the painting Hercule received. In exchange for it, he offered 10,000,000 yen (about $130,191 at today’s exchange rate) and a lot of sushi. The only problem, they had to go on a wild goose chase for that painting, which flew away. Therefore, the girls must rely on their toys. This seems silly as their powers always seem to come back at the most convenient time and go away shortly after. In the end, that man reunited with his wife and the sushi guy got his check for his daughter’s surgery. Pretty much everyone got a good ending despite Nero having to sacrifice the check she received.

Henriette's not pleased by the girls and SOPA...

While the girls finally realized their dreams to become detectives and the need to get their toys back, they are now faced with more bad news. The detective academy made a decision to close down pretty soon. From this, I seriously hope the girls come up with a solution to get their powers back and help save the school before it’s too late. Even so, I feel that they will continue to goof off until the last moment and then, kick the gentleman thieves’ butt. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: comedy, JC Staff, moe, sushi

Yep, it’s that time of year again with the wave of competitive e-drama from 2010 known as the Aniblogosphere Tourney. Since then, the blogosphere landscape has changed significantly with some blogs dying and new ones popping up while others improve. With 2012 being a big year for bloggers, I want to share how people can improve themselves, especially for the newcomers who have yet grasp the joys of blogging and writing good posts. (Image Source)

Throughout my two years and 11 months of blogging, I have gained a lot of experience. Like I have shared in one of my editorials, Anime Blogging is not a popularity contest, but rather a discussion of thoughts and passion about Anime or anything related. If you are in it to become popular, gaining attention or making money, you are not doing it right. People who blog for these reasons only tend to get burned out easily and ultimately put their blogs in multiple hiatuses or let it die. I understand that some people have busy schedules that they blog infrequently, which is completely fine. In addition, bloggers should actively reply to other people’s comments. This will not acknowledge other people’s opinions, but motivate them to make future comments in future posts. Heck, you might come up with ideas for other posts as well.

Second and most important is the content. This aspect gets looked upon heavily since it affects how many readers and comments you get. To catch someone’s attention, one has to write interesting content such as reviews, editorials or episodic posts consisting mostly opinion/analysis.  This means that you shouldn’t over summarize the whole episode, write nonsense or post news that was already published on other websites like Anime News Network. Unless you manage to make the synopsis interesting, you will only drown your reader into boredom and they might even skip what you had to say in the process. For most people, this can quickly become a time-consuming and unnecessary task. Instead, focus on the parts of the episode that catch your attention and only add summary to help support your thoughts. You should view these episodic posts as mini editorials, putting more emphasis on your thoughts and analysis rather than just synopsis.

Most importantly, proofread your work before publishing it! Not only glaring grammar and spelling mistakes will turn your readers off, it makes reading a chore. When proofreading, don’t over rely on grammar/spell check. I’m saying that because it won’t catch all the mistakes. Instead, one should read over the post at least twice or have someone else proofread it for you before publishing. By doing this, you can improve your writing while make the reading experience pleasant for your audience.

Although this is mostly cosmetic, appearance and accessibility is the final thing bloggers should give some attention. While this not as heavily weighed on compared to your content, your blog should at least look good, easy to navigate and accessible on all devices, including smartphones. When making your design, you should put some effort into making it such as your theme or the header image/banner so it looks pleasing to the reader. In addition, blogs should include a mobile website or adopt a responsive web design to their existing themes. As smartphones are becoming popular, nobody can ignore this any longer as your audience might view your content or even make a comment on the go. Having owned an iPhone for many years, trying to make comments on other blogs that don’t have a site optimized for mobile became a troublesome task since I have to zoom in and move the page around. Getting mobile ready is simple as installing a plugin like WPTouch and WordPress Mobile Pack along with responsive web design themes such as the default Twenty Eleven Theme. It’s 2012, so you really have no excuse not to implement this (for WordPress.com users, this is automatic).

So, in summary…

• Have Fun Blogging – Just write about what you enjoy and interact with other people. Don’t force yourself to blog just for page views, money or popularity.
• Write Interesting Content – Don’t over summarize (unless you can make it interesting) and avoid posting news or nonsense. (If you want to share news, just do it over Twitter, Google + or Tumblr)
• Proofread your work! – Make sure it sounds right before sharing it to the entire world.
• Be creative and accessible – Don’t make your blog look too generic and/or hard to navigate. Also, include a mobile optimized version of your blog with the ability to view the full site.

I hope all the suggestions I made were useful to everyone, especially the new bloggers who turn one year old this year or already reach this milestone. If you find yourself in the competition, I wish everyone luck and happy blogging! ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | 12 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: blogging, fandom, opinion

Considering how quiet it is since I’m only watching two shows this season, I spent majority of my time playing more Idolmaster 2 last week. Just yesterday, I wrapped up my 5^th play through before the spring semester starts. I had lots of fun conquering all of Japan with my idols in that produce (except the capital region as there is no reward). Aside from that, it’s back to college studies and studying more Japanese so I can expand my knowledge of the language with the hope of understanding more of the story later.

Also happening this week, I will write reviews for the Fall Anime, write more editorials and the Japanese Self Study Progress Part III. So, look forward to that. (In addition, some stuff about SOPA/PIPA after the jump) (Image Source).

Ranked Episodes

1. Amagami SS+ Plus – Episode 2

The finale of Tsukasa’s after story ended with a bang. Not only she won a large victory over Kurosawa, but also made Junichi’s dream came true after getting saved from an aggressive stray dog. Not only that, the art of her shown at the end is pretty. Now, let’s hope they can turn everything around with Rihoko so she doesn’t stay forever alone…

2. Tantei Opera Milky Holmes S2 – Episode 2

(I will add some commentary once the subs come out for this show so I can watch it)

Backlog

Amagami SS – Special II

Although Miya’s arc didn’t have any incest as most people expected, it was an enjoyable episode with some older brother and younger sister bonding time. One of the funniest things in the special is her conclusion that her brother is gay for Ume as they were holding hands. Clearly, he denies this, although it doesn’t explain why he never tries to get a girlfriend. Maybe he enjoys hanging out with them rather being in a relationship, but who knows.

Important Stuff

The White House has recently stated that it’s totally against SOPA/PIPA (Protect IP Act) because it will absolutely ruin the openness of the Internet and hinder innovation. Although SOPA got shelved indefinitely (for now), PIPA is still alive and dangerous. It will get voted on January 25th. Starting January 18^th, instead of blacking out, I will place a popup to notify your congressmen until 8PM EST, which will display the first time you visit. This act will not only ruin what makes the Internet great, but it will obliterate the Anime Blogosphere as we depend greatly on screenshots in our episodic or full reviews, especially those bloggers who make podcasts.

If you been living under a rock and don’t know what this commotion about, I suggest brushing up about it by reading my post and Kyokai’s take from Metanorn to realize how destructive these bills are to everything we love. Afterwards, contact your senators and local officials to share your opposition to the bill. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: anime rankings, opinion

Our favorite little sister is finally here...

Since I finished Tsukasa’s after story, I felt like taking a look of the little sister arc, the second special from the first season and it’s what you expect… There is a lot of Miya.

Junichi sure knows how to woo any girl he sees.

For a long time, many people got excited about a little sister arc because oh my god, there might be wincest! The only thing is, it’s not like that at all. It was more of her worrying about Junichi being girlfriendless forever along with the older brother and younger sister bonding. The funny part about this is that she spies on him to see what he’s up to and as you expect, he just hangs around with various girls. To make this even funnier, Risa joins in on the eavesdropping. Not only that, I liked how Miya eventually came up with the conclusion that her brother is gay for Ume since they were holding hands. Although seeing him become worked up over that idea was quite hilarious, she doesn’t have to worry too much about him not ever getting a girlfriend.

No kissing here, just playful bites...

On the other hand, Miya had valuable bonding time with Junichi when she finds a kitten. After she brought it to the house, they went out to find the mother cat and thankfully found it. After seeing the mother play with her kitten for a while, Miya and Junichi walked back home. His compliment of calling Miya his “precious little sister” and thus cares about her too was heartwarming. What added the cherry to the sundae is the playful bite she does to him afterwards since it looked adorable. Although one cannot expect direct kissing since it’s taboo, this is probably the closest we will ever get from that.

This wraps up everything that I can cover from the first season of Amagami SS. Although some of the girls’ arcs such as Ai’s and Rihoko’s disappointed me, it was a rather enjoyable romance visual novel adaptation and most importantly, it didn’t shaft all the girls for one desired pairing. Pretty much every girl got a good ending (except Rihoko) with our favorite male lead. I hope that the sequel’s focus on each girl’s after stories will fix some of the shortcomings from the prequel had and continues to bring what we like most about the show. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: AIC, little sister, moe, romance

As for the kissing, there is a lot...

After what happened in the last episode, do you think that Tsukasa will let Kurosawa steal Junichi away? Not a fat chance…

It’s quite surprising that Junichi didn’t receive any sort of punishment for unknowingly falling for Kurosawa’s simple love trap. Although Tsukasa never apprehended her for almost kissing him, the dirty looks she gives to her was enough to scare her. On the other hand, I liked how she took care of the problem and eventually kissed Junichi again while making a promise with him not to kiss any other girl except her. It was so effective that he never fell for another one ever again. Not only that, it got him to support her even more, especially with her speech along with supporters from her class. As a result, she won the election by a large margin with Kurosawa losing. This shows that messing with Tsukasa will always result in a bad ending.

Junichi's ultimate reward...

Besides her huge victory over her rivals in the school presidential election, it’s nice to see Junichi protect his girlfriend from a stray dog by having it follow him into a lake. As a reward, his dream of her scrubbing his back came true sans the towel as she wore a swimsuit. It was great that his dream ultimately came true, especially when he receives another kiss afterwards. Junichi is one lucky man…

It's still a victory even though Sae was second in the elections.

Although these after story arcs are rather short this time around, Tsukasa’s After Story fits with her episodes from the first season rather nicely. Not only that, I found Miya’s attempt to get Sae elected so she can shred her shyness rather amusing. She even got a good number of votes over Kurosawa out of sympathy! Aside from that, Rihoko is up next and hopefully, she doesn’t end up getting Friendzoned this time around or otherwise, I will rage. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: AIC, moe, romance